River Hennick, an eighth-grade student at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy designed the colorful drawing to celebrate Passover.
River is always learning and trying out various facets of art. This cover was inspired by her delving into Surrealism works (think Joan Miró artwork), and fits into River’s quest to surprise and delight the audience.
When assigned the task of creating something representing the Festival of Freedom, River began by “thinking of a list of items and festive things that we do for Passover.” In the drawing, the 14-year-old artist incorporated a Star of David, the wine cup and a haggadah from the seder service as well as a plate of unleavened bread and a bowl of matzah ball soup that graces almost every Jewish table at least once during the holiday.
River used chalk pastels to create this drawing and chose that medium because she thought it would work best for her idea. When she’s drawing for her own enjoyment, her favorite mediums are ink washes and watercolor. In her spare time, she loves to draw animals, especially cats. Her cat Daisy is often her inspiration.
In addition to art class at the Jewish day school, River has taken lessons at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and private lessons with art coaches. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Hennick and Mark Hennick.